Last
spring I joined Kim and Jon for my first hike on the Downey Creek
Trail. Years earlier Kim went with some other hikers on a long
abandoned trail to a small lake below Downey Mountain. She thought she
recalled the location of the start of the trail. We looked and found it
rather easily. We went up and short way and planned a future return
trip. Now that it was a long Fourth of July weekend we decided to head
back there. We met in Shoreline at 6:45 am and headed north. Up to
Darrington then on to the Suiattle River Road. I was driving my sedan
and we had almost no trouble on the gravel section of road. I managed
to bang on two rocks on the narrow section just before the Downey Creek
Bridge. A lot of noise but no apparent damage. I did not hit them on
the way out. We pulled into the mostly full parking lot at about 9:00
am. By 9:15 am we were on the trail.

The route begins with a little climbing before leveling off and coming
nearer the creek. Early on Kim noticed candystick, a saprophyte, along
the trail. These plants do not need chlorophyll to survive. Not a bit
of green on any of them. We were to see a huge amount of them
throughout the day. The same big down logs seen last year are still
there. On one there is a cut out for your foot to crawl over the top.
The other big one had the entire rootball of a big tree pull out. You
need to climb up and around and back down to the trail. Otherwise, the
trail is in great shape. We continued on crossing one creek on a log
and soon coming to the obvious markings on a tree. We took a break and
headed up the old trail. First I need to say that the destination is
not a terrific scenic lake full of fish. It is instead a small shallow
lake/pond surrounded by forest. Not a destination to long for. The
trail is interesting and some navigation skill is necessary. It is much
easier to lose coming down when you really need it.

Check it out if you like but unless you love to hike narrow old
bootpaths to unremarkable destinations this trip may be a let down. We
started up at 11:10 am. After a very steep first 250' the trail settled
down to many switchbacks and a fairly gentle grade. In the 1930s, when
we believe this route was built, most trails were steep. The lower
abandoned Green Mountain Trail across the valley and this one are very
gentle. So gentle that it took over three miles to climb 2500' from the
Downey Creek Trail to the lake at about 4750'. The forest is mostly
open with some thick salal ground cover in places and moss in others.
The saprophyte show continued right up the route. We saw many coral
root, some pinedrops, some candystick, and some Indian pipe. I've seen
some bigger patches of coral root but never so many saprophytes on one
trail.

For the most part we were able to stay on the route. Someone has been
caring for the trail as many down trees have been cut out over the
years. There are a couple of big blowdowns that hide the trail. We took
some time to find it after the biggest mess. Though most all the route
is in thick forest, there was one spot where we had a small view out. I
was able to see the Green Mountain lookout far above us. Other snowy
peaks to the north on that ridge were also in sight. From there we went
right back into forest. Slivers of sunlight shone through on much of
the route. It created very bright and very dark areas next to each
other. My point and shoot camera did not do well with the extreme
highlights and shadows. Many photos were blown out or too blurry to use.

After many switchbacks the route headed for the outlet creek. After a
long traverse we headed back uphill for the last 500' of gain. The
trail is really faint in places here. We finally reached the lake at
2:50 pm. The first thing I noticed were all the frogs. There were a few
small snow patches left. They will be gone soon. We headed over to two
big rocks. One in the sun and one in the shade. We climbed up onto the
shady one. There was a cloud of bugs everywhere. For some reason they
were not biting. It might not be so good in a week or two. The basin is
very small. It goes up fast on three sides. Forest covers all views of
the basin walls. Downey Mountain is about 1200' straight up. I don't
think the point we saw was the summit.

After nearly an hour at the lake we headed down. Since the grade is so
gentle and the ground mossy it was easy on the knees going down. As
expected we lost the route a few times but found it again fairly
quickly. Our down time to the main trail was nearly an hour less than
the ascent. We slogged out the Downey Creek Trail and arrived back at
the trailhead at 7:53 pm. It was along day. Almost all the cars were
still there. Most folks were heading to Dome, Sinister, other big
peaks, or the Ptarmigan Traverse. The four day holiday weekend brought
out a crowd for those destinations. We saw exactly zero people over the
course of more than ten hours on the trail. Yeah, all the trails are
overly crowded these days. Two days earlier we saw ten people all day
hiking to Hope and Mig Lakes along the Pacific Crest Trail. That made
two trips on a holiday weekend and ten people total seen for both days
combined.

It was fun to hike the old trail. While the Suiattle River Road was
partly close for 11 years and closed farther back for 8 years I hiked
the old Green Mountain Trail From Downey Creek to the summit of Green
three times. That neat old trail led to the new trail and on to the
summit of Green Mountain. That is a terrific destination. This trail
was fun to see but the little lake/pond is no Green Mountain. The trail
is the thing to see not the lake. I would not bother unless a narrow
old trail was the reason to do it.